Adventurous
by LunarShipper
Summary: And how DOES Ivor's "adventure" go? What does he hope to find? (IvorXHarper)
1. Courage

The portal flashed and Ivor –disoriented- stumbled through. Looking back over his shoulder, he scratched the back of his head. "Alright, next time I see a sheep I'm running for the hills!" His sentence echoed in the hall, bouncing off the walls. His eyebrows creased as he looked down at the Atlas in his hands.

As he regained his senses, his stomach rumbled. Looking down at it in surprise, his face grew matter-of-fact. "Time for a lunch break." He mumbled, simultaneously wondering if it was abnormal that he talked to himself as much as he did.

He opened the chest he had plopped down in the middle of the hall some time ago. It was filled with his own personal treasures from worlds he had explored by himself. A potion of invulnerability from a world of potion-makers, a green enchanted flint and steel he had received from a grateful traveler he had escorted home, a stained iron ingot, and his most prized possession…

A poppy flower.

Ivor picked it up and looked at it for a moment. He had considered carrying it with him many times, but he didn't dare risk it in case he needed the inventory space or if he dropped it.

Maybe he should drop by Crown Mesa sometime, see how she was doing… But what would he say? What **could** he say? Shaking his head in annoyance, he gently placed the flower back into its special place in the chest. He'd think about this later, as he had told himself many times before.

He pulled a piece of bread from the chest and began to eat it. His thoughts were his own as he munched in silence. Once finished he stood up and brushed himself off. Ivor looked down the hall he had been calling home recently. He still hadn't explored much of it; there was still much adventure to be had for sure.

He flipped open the atlas, paging through it gingerly. The pages themselves were interesting enough, though not magical by any stretch of the imagination. Ivor silently sighed, and looked over at the chest. His chest felt a familiar tug and he growled, burying his nose in the Atlas to distract himself.

"What is this?" He growled inaudibly. Why was this sensation so… pleasantly incomprehensible? He hadn't much time to ponder, however, as he was blinded by a flash of light. Dropping the Atlas in surprise, he half-stumbled half-fell backwards to the ground. Staring at the Atlas, he watched the light symbols swirl in the air and dance into the creation of a path that led into a familiar Redstone portal. Ivor paled, not thinking to stand up as he gaped at the portal: Crown Mesa's portal.

 _Her_ portal.

Now any doubts that he had had been quelled. He had to go. He was being prompted by the Atlas itself. He had to know why the book was telling him to go through when he hadn't asked it to. Ivor looked back at the chest, in particular one red poppy flower.

Would she want it back? Did she even know he had it? Jesse was the one she gave it to, so she had no reason to think he had it. What would she say?

Honestly? He didn't want to give it back. It was his little treasure, his to remember back on fondly whenever he returned from a particularly nasty portal or just had a rough day in general. He could look on it and remember… remember when she walked up to him and told him he was alright. It wasn't the best compliment, but it meant so much coming from her.

He walked up to the portal, watching it carefully as if something might pop out of it. Ivor looked over his shoulder at the chest and, before he would think it over too much, took it with him. Taking a deep breath as he rolled his head back, he mustered up all the courage he could and stepped through the portal.


	2. Faith

As he stepped through the portal he noticed two things immediately:

The first being that his landing wasn't painful like it usually was.

The second being that he was now underwater.

Swimming to the surface, he looked around in surprise. "Water? Here?" he asked no one in particular. Last time he had been here water had been an incredibly rare –not to mention valuable- resource. Looking around he saw that he had landed in a rather small lake. Climbing out of the water he looked to the ground for the path and found it amongst grass of all things. Already this place seemed to be more alive than it had previously been. With everyone having been exploited and made useful by that machine it would make sense that they'd be very fond of water's protection.

The gravel road seemed to have been replaced with smooth stone, and fencepost-hoisted torches illuminated the pathway quite nicely. Ivor observed the surroundings with a careful eye, wary of any mobs that may be prowling. There was a nearby welcoming sign, and he smiled at its hospitality. Surely they had set this up in case anyone came out the portal network. Harper had said she knew where it deposited people. He made his way to the light, where the homey illumination of torches shone like a beacon in the dusk dimness.

Ivor brushed his wet, greasy hair out of his face. Should he wait until morning? Where could he even safely wait out the night? He didn't want to get attacked by mobs, but he more so didn't want to invade on anyone's home in the night. Maybe he should just sneak back out the portal before-

"Ivor? That you?"

He almost fell forward. His eyes widened as he whirled around in shock. Sure enough, there before him was her. The Old Builder herself, _Harpe_ r. His face paled and he took a step back. "Wh-oh! Hello!"

Harper gave him an odd look and put a hand on her hip as she spoke. "What are you doing here? I though Jesse and you all were dying to get home."

"Yes, uh-well, yes that is correct. But I uh, you see, um… Adventure?" He finished weakly, smiling at her nervously but mentally kicking himself for being so pathetic.

Harper laughed lightly at the use of his catchphrase. "Well it's an adventure all right. With PAMA gone we've been busy rebuilding."

"Have they finally gotten over the whole brainwashing thing?" Ivor asked, making an outward gesture with his hand.

"Well, some of them… There's still that few that hold a grudge, though, you know?"

His thoughts were bitter but his voice was different- almost hopeful. "You're always free to come with us."

"Well that's… very nice of you." Harper said, eyebrows raised in surprise. Ivor smiled at her nervously. "But I promised to help everyone here rebuild. I'm actually out here to get spider string for some fishing rods."

"Would you like my help?" Ivor asked a little too excitedly.

"Actually, yeah, it you don't mind. I just need a few more before I call it a night."

Ivor nodded, still dumbly smiling, and took his sword out. He began the hunt for spiders, taking out on them all the anger he'd felt towards himself in the past few minutes.

Ivor killed another spider, taking both the spider eye for potion making and the string for Harper. Looking back over his shoulder to check on her, he put his sword away. In a stroke of genius not uncommon for him, he began to dig up clay. This clay he could make into brick, and with these brick he would craft a pot. A pot would be a much more fitting way to keep his poppy safe.

As he dug in front of him, breaking the clay block, his eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. The block he had destroyed revealed the presence of a ravine underneath them. Ivor cautiously peered down the opening. Ivor peered down with a squint.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted it: a spider crawling up the ravine towards him.

Retrieving his sword he took another step back and widened the gap so the spider could come through. As it emerged he began slashing at it with his sword. As it lunged at him he skewered it and picked up its drops.

As he walked back towards the hole, another spider emerged. And another. Backing up in surprise, Ivor threw a torch down at the lip of the hole to prevent more from spawning. He wasn't as good a fighter as Jesse, but he could hold his own against two spiders. After killing the spiders and collecting the loot he moved to the hole and threw down more torches. Surely enough he could see oak wood planks in the depths, and he illuminated the cave with more torches before calling Harper over.

"I believe I've found a spider spawner." He explained when she approached, looking over at her.

"Well would you look at that. Villagers and I never woulda found it, that's fer sure."

Ivor smiled, noticing as he did so that he smiled a lot in her presence and that he needed to stop that. "Well, ladies first."

Harper began digging a rudimentary staircase down the wall of the ravine. Ivor followed, placing torches as he did so. As the two reached the bottom Ivor scratched the back of his head. It had become a nervous habit of his, and he was exceptionally nervous right now standing next to Harper. As he looked at the abandoned mineshaft he saw a corridor of cobwebs with a faint glowing from within. Ivor put more torches down to prevent more from spawning, and Harper got out an iron sword. She began hacking at the cobwebs with her sword, and Ivor put his hands on his hips condescendingly. "Really? You're using a sword to get rid of cobwebs?"

"Well what would you use?"

Ivor wordlessly got out a bucket of water and dumped it. He smirked as the water dissipated the cobwebs into string. Harper smiled "Alright, alright. You win this round."  
Smiling to himself, Ivor walked through the path his water had created and put some torches on and surrounding the spawner. "Do you have enough string?"

"Yeah, this should be good. Thanks for helpin' out, I really appreciate it."

"It was nothing." Ivor looked away, scratching the back of his head under the heat of her smile.


End file.
